Market Turmoil Pressures Redstone

Sales of Chunks of Viacom, CBS to Meet Loan Terms Show How Vulnerable He Is to Stock Swings

By

Merissa Marr

Updated Oct. 14, 2008 12:01 a.m. ET

After spending decades building a huge and diverse media empire, Sumner Redstone was shocked to find himself in an unusually vulnerable position late last week, forced to sell off a big chunk of his holdings in Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp.

Mr. Redstone had used his prized stakes in those two publicly held media giants, which he controls, to help back a $1.6 billion loan to expand his family's movie-theater chain, among other things. On Monday, Mr. Redstone's family holding company, National Amusements, announced it had...